Free Services to Send Files End-To-End Encrypted

There are a number of services for sending files to someone else that are both free and secure. This post provides an overview.

What is End-to-End Encrypted File Sending?

File sending services work similarly to file synchronization & sharing services, except there is no synchronization part. You navigate to the service’s website, select the files you want to send, and they’re encrypted on your machine while being uploaded. You get a link to be shared with the files’ recipient. The service stores the files for a certain time, typically seven days. That is how long the link remains valid. It is important to note that end-to-end encrypted sending services cannot decipher your data, for them it’s just meaningless bits.

Selection Criteria for File Sending Services

File sending services must meet the following requirements in order to be listed here:

  1. Free to use
  2. No registration necessary (neither for the sender nor the recipient)
  3. Maximum size at least 5 GB
  4. Link validity at least one day (aka storage/caching on the service’s servers)
  5. End-to-end encryption

File Sending Services

Tresorit Send

  • URL: https://send.tresorit.com/
  • Max. size: 5 GB
  • Link expiration: 7 days
  • Notes: optionally, a password can be set (files are always encrypted, even without a password).

pCloud Transfer

  • URL: https://transfer.pcloud.com/
  • Max. size: 5 GB
  • Link expiration: 7 days
  • Notes: encryption is enabled by setting a password; the size limit doesn’t apply if the sender creates a user account.

Wormhole

  • URL: https://wormhole.app/
  • Max. size: 5 GB
  • Link expiration: 1 day
  • Notes: in peer-to-peer mode the size limit is 10 GB, but in that mode the sender’s browser needs to stay open until the recipient has finished downloading.

Discontinued File Sending Services

The following services are not longer available. They’re listed here for completeness’ sake.

  • Firefox Send
EncryptionFile SendingFile SharingSynchronization

Comments

Related Posts

Switching from Chrome to Firefox

Switching from Chrome to Firefox
After many years as a happy user, I switched from Chrome to Firefox. How did that go? Astonishingly well! Here are some notes I took in the process. My History of Changing Browsers Netscape to Internet Explorer I think I started out with Netscape Navigator on Windows 95. My first change of browsers happened with Windows NT 4 and Internet Explorer 4. That was a great browser! Everybody switched to IE in the following years. Microsoft’s domination of the browser market (yes, that was a reality for many years) started right there with IE4. Internet Explorer was successful not only because it was bundled with the operating system, but also because it was a good application.
Applications

Latest Posts

Fast & Silent 5 Watt PC: Minimizing Idle Power Usage

Fast & Silent 5 Watt PC: Minimizing Idle Power Usage
This micro-series explains how to turn the Lenovo ThinkCentre M90t Gen 6 into a smart workstation that consumes only 5 Watts when idle but reaches top Cinebench scores while staying almost imperceptibly silent. In the first post, I showed how to silence the machine by replacing and adding to Lenovo’s CPU cooler. In this second post, I’m listing the exact configuration that achieves the lofty goal of combining minimal idle power consumption with top Cinebench scores.
Hardware

Fast & Silent 5 Watt PC: Lenovo ThinkCentre M90t Modding

Fast & Silent 5 Watt PC: Lenovo ThinkCentre M90t Modding
This micro-series explains how to turn the Lenovo ThinkCentre M90t Gen 6 into a smart workstation that consumes only 5 Watts when idle but reaches top Cinebench scores while staying almost imperceptibly silent. In this first post, I’m showing how to silence the machine by replacing and adding to Lenovo’s CPU cooler. In a second post, I’m listing the exact configuration that achieves the lofty goal of combining minimal idle power consumption with top Cinebench scores.
Hardware